The Triathlon thread - Ironman, 70.3, Olympic, Sprint

The Triathlon thread - Ironman, 70.3, Olympic, Sprint

Author
Discussion

esuuv

1,324 posts

206 months

Tuesday 29th April 2014
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I need a new tri suit - I'm doing IMUK in july and i want a 2 piece as its just easier when you're in it all day.

Trouble is i'm 6'6 and all the two piece suits i've tried the tops are just too short, thats stood at home or in a shop so they are going to be much worse once running - any one got any suggestions? am currently having a snugg wetsuit made - anyone do similar for tri suits?

drgav2005

960 posts

220 months

Wednesday 30th April 2014
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esuuv said:
I need a new tri suit - I'm doing IMUK in july and i want a 2 piece as its just easier when you're in it all day.

Trouble is i'm 6'6 and all the two piece suits i've tried the tops are just too short, thats stood at home or in a shop so they are going to be much worse once running - any one got any suggestions? am currently having a snugg wetsuit made - anyone do similar for tri suits?
Hi essuv,

I've just ordered a Castelli Free tri top and shorts from Wiggle. The top has little hooks to latch it onto the shorts at the back to keep it in place. I've not tried it out yet but it may be worth a look. I needed to go up one size in their tri tops / shorts to XL from L in their bike shorts. They go up to XXXL !!!

drgav2005

960 posts

220 months

Friday 2nd May 2014
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May already?!

Another pretty solid month of training in the bag. Got the Drumlanrig sportive this weekend - 100 'lumpy' miles around Dumfriesshire and up to Wanlockhead, the highest village in Scotalnd... can't wait!

Hope the training and racing is going well for all.

beer

www.drgironman.blogspot.com

944fan

4,962 posts

186 months

Tuesday 6th May 2014
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Anyone competing this weekend? I have Buckingham Tri on Sunday. Pool based sprint.

My bike is fair to middling at the minute and my run is terrible as always. Going to go nuts in the pool for a PB in that and cruise the rest. Was on a 6:25 two weeks ago for the 400m. Aiming for a sub 6:20.

Annoyingly when you signed up you could only give your 400m time to the nearest minute. I didn't want to get stuck behind a load of people swimming 7:20-7:30 so I put 6 minutes. Hope there aren't too many people doing sub 6 or I will be in their way.

whatleytom

1,306 posts

184 months

Tuesday 6th May 2014
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Raced on Sunday, just a local sprint 400m pool swim/20k bike/5k run with 140 or so other competitors.

Swim went well and in a few seconds over 6 minutes which I was fairly pleased with considering I've barely been in the pool all year! Out onto the bike and feeling good, managed the third fastest bike split in 32:30 at 23.5mph, which was fairly good going. Then onto the run where I had the worst stitch known to man and actually had to walk for a minute or so in the first mile. It passed and I only got stronger as the run went on posting my fastest mile on the last third for a 23min 5k and a 1:03 finish and 18th overall, 3rd in age category. Pleased overall as I went 5mins faster than this time last year, but disappointed in the run, think I drank too much before the race and on the bike. Onwards and upwards!

Outlaw half next!

anonymous-user

55 months

Wednesday 7th May 2014
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Airside at Gatwick right now on the way to sunny Mallorca for the 70.3. Apparently it is windy... Oh well, never mind!

Amateurish

7,755 posts

223 months

Wednesday 7th May 2014
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944fan said:
Anyone competing this weekend? I have Buckingham Tri on Sunday. Pool based sprint.
Me too thumbup

JQ

5,753 posts

180 months

Wednesday 7th May 2014
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Amateurish said:
944fan said:
Anyone competing this weekend? I have Buckingham Tri on Sunday. Pool based sprint.
Me too thumbup
I've got my first one - pool based sprint in Wilmslow. I have a target time of 1hr 39 mins for 400m, 24.2km and 6.3km - not up there with some on here, but it's great to have a reason to get in the pool or go for a run, I don't need an excuse to get out on the bike though.

drgav2005

960 posts

220 months

Wednesday 7th May 2014
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whatleytom said:
Raced on Sunday, just a local sprint 400m pool swim/20k bike/5k run with 140 or so other competitors.

Swim went well and in a few seconds over 6 minutes which I was fairly pleased with considering I've barely been in the pool all year! Out onto the bike and feeling good, managed the third fastest bike split in 32:30 at 23.5mph, which was fairly good going. Then onto the run where I had the worst stitch known to man and actually had to walk for a minute or so in the first mile. It passed and I only got stronger as the run went on posting my fastest mile on the last third for a 23min 5k and a 1:03 finish and 18th overall, 3rd in age category. Pleased overall as I went 5mins faster than this time last year, but disappointed in the run, think I drank too much before the race and on the bike. Onwards and upwards!

Outlaw half next!
Good effort Tom - swimming time was great, as well as a solid bike and speedy run! Good Luck in the Outlaw half!

drgav2005

960 posts

220 months

Wednesday 7th May 2014
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944fan said:
Anyone competing this weekend? I have Buckingham Tri on Sunday. Pool based sprint.

My bike is fair to middling at the minute and my run is terrible as always. Going to go nuts in the pool for a PB in that and cruise the rest. Was on a 6:25 two weeks ago for the 400m. Aiming for a sub 6:20.

Annoyingly when you signed up you could only give your 400m time to the nearest minute. I didn't want to get stuck behind a load of people swimming 7:20-7:30 so I put 6 minutes. Hope there aren't too many people doing sub 6 or I will be in their way.
Good Luck this weekend to you and Amateurish!!!

Edited by drgav2005 on Wednesday 7th May 17:57

drgav2005

960 posts

220 months

Wednesday 7th May 2014
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Greg66 said:
Airside at Gatwick right now on the way to sunny Mallorca for the 70.3. Apparently it is windy... Oh well, never mind!
Have a blast Greg - hope you slice through the wind! At least it is warm and sunny, I'm looking at the Caledonian Etape this weekend and if it breaks into double figures in degrees C we'll be lucky!!!

All the best for a great race beer

drgav2005

960 posts

220 months

Wednesday 7th May 2014
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JQ said:
I've got my first one - pool based sprint in Wilmslow. I have a target time of 1hr 39 mins for 400m, 24.2km and 6.3km - not up there with some on here, but it's great to have a reason to get in the pool or go for a run, I don't need an excuse to get out on the bike though.
All the best for your first tri - I'm sure you'll really enjoy it. Don't worry about the time, it's competing and completing that is important, especially for your first. You can worry about times for your next races!

beer

944fan

4,962 posts

186 months

Thursday 8th May 2014
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Amateurish said:
944fan said:
Anyone competing this weekend? I have Buckingham Tri on Sunday. Pool based sprint.
Me too thumbup
What swim wave are you in? I am in 6, the last one.

944fan

4,962 posts

186 months

Sunday 11th May 2014
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Back from Buckingham. Bloody windy it was. First half of the bike section was quite lumpy and in to the wind. Side winds meant you couldn't go mental on the downhills.

Back leg was nice and flat and more sheltered so manged to get the average speed up a bit.

My strategy was to go max in the swim, hard as I could on the bike and just get through the run. Managed that pretty well. 6:30 the swim which is only 5 seconds off my standalone 400m time. Bike was 42:54 but that includes both T1 and T2. Run was dismal as expected, legs felt like lead and just wouldn't move.

1:25in total. Quite please as I have only really done swim training this year and havent touched the bike in months.

aspender

1,307 posts

266 months

Sunday 11th May 2014
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Tri-Force Herts Sports Village Sprint for me this morning.

400m pool swim: 6:55.20
T1: 40.95
20k bike: 41:05.10
T2: 36.70
5k run: 24:29.90

Total: 1:13:47.85

About a minute slower than last year, and good for 34/200. The 20mph headwind on half of the bike section wasn't much fun.

Pretty happy overall given the conditions and the fact I'm three weeks out from the Outlaw Half and had a hard week of training.

Amateurish

7,755 posts

223 months

Sunday 11th May 2014
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944fan said:
Back from Buckingham. Bloody windy it was. First half of the bike section was quite lumpy and in to the wind. Side winds meant you couldn't go mental on the downhills.

Back leg was nice and flat and more sheltered so manged to get the average speed up a bit.

My strategy was to go max in the swim, hard as I could on the bike and just get through the run. Managed that pretty well. 6:30 the swim which is only 5 seconds off my standalone 400m time. Bike was 42:54 but that includes both T1 and T2. Run was dismal as expected, legs felt like lead and just wouldn't move.

1:25in total. Quite please as I have only really done swim training this year and havent touched the bike in months.
I had a good time as well. Looking at the weather this morning, I wasn't feeling quite so positive!

Nice bike course, managed to maintain some decent speeds over the second half. Unfortunately, the woman in front of me got knocked off her bike by a car failing to give way on a roundabout. She was pretty shaken by the experience, but happily only suffered nasty grazes and scrapes. I waited with her for a while, while the ambulance came. That A421 is a very busy road to be running a road race on.

anonymous-user

55 months

Sunday 11th May 2014
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Mallorca 70.3: humbling.

Two things about Mallorca: it is hot and it is lumpy. Coming from Blighty in Spring, it's easy to forget how intense the sun is down in southern parts. I won't be forgetting that factoid again.

With 3500 competitors, there's no mass start. The organisers make up for this by firing age groups down a 10m wide chute into the sea. With 500+ in our age group, this made for absolute carnage. The first 800m out to the turn point was like being in a pub fight that had been chucked in a washing machine. Only a bit worse.

Past the second corner and into the return straight, things mellowed a bit, and I found some space in which to swim - which is, after all, the point of the swim leg.

Out of the water spitting briny Mediterranean seawater we had a short 500m run to the entrance of transition, which was itself a kilometre long. FFS! A quick fight with my wetsuit and off I clacked in bike shoes to find my bike. I didn't bother with sun cream, because (a) I wasn't planning on sunbathing, but (b) I had put some waterproof factor 50 on earlier, which should be fine, right?

Out on the bike course I found out quickly that my shoulders were aching too much to hold an aero position - the first of many consequences of inadequate preparation shining through. This wasn't all bad though, as the second consequence was not being able to hold my head up from my aero tuck for very long at a time. So I was up, then down, then up, then down...

For those that know the area, the bike route leaves Alcudia and heads north on the coast road (=crosswind from the right) to Pollensa. Then we turn inland and head on a consistent 1-2% incline for the climb that takes us up to Lluc. This isn't a bad climb by roadie standards - 7km averaging 5.5%, with a max of maybe 10% on short sections. It's just not what you want when you're trying to go flat out on a TT bike.

It also has a twin peak: you get to the top, then you drop, then you round a sharp corner losing all speed and continue up again to the real top. Lovely.

Now, at some point between the peaks my adductors started whining. By the second peak they were properly screaming. That meant that pedalling was exquisitely painful (not such a problem, as the next part of the route was a fast hairpinned descent) and that I couldn't put any weight on my sit bones without more exquisite pain (that *was* a problem). So there I sat like an uncomfortable and unwilling passenger "enjoying" the descent. Still, I was better off than the rider who'd had an off at the final of the top hairpins. The ambulance guys had a rope hanging over the barrier and were peering into a drop which, on a recce the following day, we reckoned was roughly like falling off the roof of a house.

Off the descent and it was pedal time again - Ye Gods it hurt. A lot. Really really a lot. Enough to make me contemplate DNF'ing. But I vaguely remembered the horror of the Marmotte, and how my legs can sometimes come back to me after a while. So I plugged away, spun when I could (didn't help) and stood out of the saddle when I could (did help). My training buddy swept past me during this part of the race, and provided a bit of incentive to push on (as he vanished into the distance). After about another 10k, things seemed to be a bit looser, and I was pedalling more freely again.

Now we were on either flat or 1-2% in our favour in a long run to the coast. So after a few "test bursts" I decided all was well enough to crack on. By which I mean "crack on hard enough to make up all the lost time and some more". I managed to catch and repass my training buddy, then get passed again, repass, and so on. Now, despite having some absolutely flying moments, and occasionally being that guy who flies by on the trick TT rig (instead of the person flown by), this "crack on" tactic had wholly expected consequences: after 40k of "whump, whump, whump" balls-to-the-wall riding I rocked up at T2 with legs utterly cooked. Well done me!

So in T2 I glugged a gel and the remainder of my bottle, forgetting that I'd had a big chunk of Clif bar and drink 10 mins earlier. I exited T2, into the searing heat of the early afternoon, with a belly fuller of food and liquid than if I'd been on a beer and curry extravaganza. Not good.

By coincidence I'd hit T2 at the same time as my training buddy. We left T2 stride for stride. Our pace over the first two km was waaay too fast, leaving me feeling like I was going to vomit with enough force to flatten a barn. We got to the first aid station and I pulled out the white flag - of sorts - I walked the aid station while my buddy ran on. And so that became the pattern of my day - can't be arsed-itis set in and I walked every aid station for almost the first half of the run. This was doubly dispiriting: seeing your training buddy disappear into the distance when you can do nothing in response hurts, but also I'd run 10 miles the previous weekend at a faster pace than the first two km of this run, and yet those 2km had crushed me.

By about 2/3s of the way round the second lap - so maybe the 12km mark - my stomach seemed to have emptied and I had my temperature under control through repeated dousings with cold water at the aid stations. I started to find a rhythm to my running again, and with only a couple more pauses managed to run out the balance of the race at reasonable pace. Little did I know when I crossed the line that my training buddy, who at one point on an out and back section I reckoned to be at least a km ahead of me, had exploded on the third lap of the run and come in only two minutes ahead of me.

So, the times: swim 33.35, T1 8.02 (it really was a long way!), bike 3h16, T2 5.35, run 2.11. Total 6h 15m 49s. Which compares unfavourably to last year's IMC performance.

All in all, a frustrating race. There's little point devoting a reasonable amount of time and the required money to enter these things: you're better off devoting the necessary amount of time, or not bothering (at least, in my view). Hot temps and me don't agree (see posts passim about the Marmotte last year). And despite having much better run fitness that I had last year, it remains All About The Bike. If you can't dismount the bike leg with fresh legs, your run fitness will be crushed. I've been, I now realise, far too complacent about the bike and need to pull my finger out. And it is really a very bad idea to decide, mid race, that your appetite for discomfort isn't all that it used to be. Really bad.

Oh, and a postscript: the absence of sun cream means that my shoulder and calves are now proper blood red. Glowing, if you will, but not in a good way.

Until next time...


Edited by anonymous-user on Sunday 11th May 21:13

dave0010

1,381 posts

162 months

Sunday 11th May 2014
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Gutted to here your misfortune there mate. From the sound of it the organisation wasn't the best or is it always that chaotic on the swims and transitions?

JQ

5,753 posts

180 months

Monday 12th May 2014
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Completed my first Tri yesterday - Wilmslow Sprint :

400m pool swim : 8.29
T1 : 1.57
24.3km cycle : 48.38
T2 : 1.03
6.4km run : 32.21
Total : 1.32.31

Absolutely loved it. I was rather nervous at the start of the day as the weather looked like it would be terrible - in the end there was some rain, lots of wind on the bike, lots of mud on the run and in transition, but not too bad overall and added to the adventure. Plus the organisation of the event was superb.

I was pretty comfortable in the swim and on the bike, but the run was horrific. I really struggled for the first 3km having a bad stitch and wobbly legs but got into my stride after that.

Definitely going to do another Sprint, and am thinking about an Olympic distance towards the end of the year. I will need to do some serious swim training to get comfortable for that though.


Rich_W

12,548 posts

213 months

Monday 12th May 2014
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Quick question I'll bung in here regarding run training. It's always been my weakest area despite putting the most effort into it.

Currently in for a couple OD's this year. But I have my first marathon in September. 6 weeks after my last OD. Obviously I'm training for all 3 events at the same time. Aim is to see how I get on at a standalone 26.2 and then seriously consider going to IM next year. (Probably Zurich as it stands)

Talking specifically about the running.

I'm doing:

1 speedwork session. Intervals or Tempo run normally (circa 5K total)
1 Hill repeat session. Normally about double duration/distance of my speed session (around 10K)
And
1 Long Slow Run which currently stands at 20Km but I plan to up that slowly to reach a max of around 36Km. I do plan to taper the LSRs slightly around my 2 OD's,

I'm finding that my running is only ever "ok" so any thoughts on ways to improve it? Should I just up the distances in all 3 sessions? Increase intensity? More sessions may be difficult to fit in. But I'm open to it as a suggestion.